Using a systems approach to conduct the assessments, they calculated the carbon footprint of each protein based on the greenhouse gas emissions generated from farm-to-fork. This includes everything from the impact of inputs such as pesticides and fertilizer used to produce animal feed to the raising, processing, transporting, cooking, and disposal of each animal and it’s byproducts. The full report is available here.

The infographic below visualizes their findings.

Image via EWG & The Atlantic

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That doesn’t make any sense. Besides, why are people being blamed for everything by the scumbag government who then bombs and uses DU bullets and doesn’t’ tell anyone they’re being irradiated the crap out of by Japan and BP is allowed by the government to destroy and poison the Gulf of Mexico, but *we’re* supposed to feel guilty for driving to and from work and eating a chicken salad. F**********CK that…. This is tyrannical lying made up nonsense. if you want to hassle someone about their imaginary “carbon footprint, bother celebs that criss cross the planet all day everyday in private jets and use giga watts of energy to put on shows and produce TV (mostly trashy useless garbage) and movies. They use 50 times what the average person does in a lifetime. So the guilt thing?. it’s not working. I use regular non mercury poisonous toxic melatonin destroying light bulbs too. Is someone GREEN SS force going to shoot me soon? I wouldn’t be surprised, with Agenda 21 the genocide of 70% of humanity in full swing. Why not write about how Monsanto wants to OWN all food on earth. Idiots.

I do not buy into EWG analysis. So much is variable with a food depending on the production mode used. Working here in Upstate NY as an apprentice cheesemaker: Let’s take a look at where the milk we just put in the cheese vat came from—it came from milk produced on several hundred acres of wide open grasslands. Lots of literature out there on grasslands for carbon sequestration, relationship of grazing and enhanced biodiversity. Even more literature out there on maintaining open grasslands to keep threatened bird species who need unfragmented open pieces of land in excess of 50 acres to survive. So, EWG is telling people to boycott and eat less of the cheese that my neighbor makes to help maintain his farm and pay the taxes on a huge tract of land that is one of the last unfragmented open areas. Laughable!
This is overly simplistic and all too easy to tell to people who have never lived and worked on the land. EWG does us more harm than good with this dumbing down. Too bad they don’t use their media power to point out the variations, the myriad production models and the good efforts of people who strive to improve things.